This invention relates to mallets for striking musical percussion instruments and, more particularly, to an improved percussion mallet.
Percussion mallets are used for vibraphones, marimbas, xylophones, and similar musical instruments. Previous percussion mallets include hammer heads constructed from combinations such as a rubber ball and wound cloth, a wooden base and a felt band, and a plastic ball and rubber sleeve. These mallets produce a "standard tone" upon impacting a percussion instrument. However, the "standard tone" is always preceded by a clunking sound attributable to the contact by the mallet with a bar of the percussion instrument before the "standard tone" of the bar is generated. This clunking sound is particularly noticeable and distracting in a recording studio. Prior percussion mallets are also limited in that they can only produce one volume. As a result, a player controls the volume by employing a higher stroke with a heavy, downward force for a forte passage and a lower stroke with a lighter, downward force for a piano passage.
A general object of the invention is to provide a percussion mallet for musical instruments which produces the "standard tone" without the clunking characteristics attributable to other percussion mallets.
Another object of the invention is to provide a percussion mallet for musical instruments which is capable of producing two different volumes, forte or piano, depending upon the angle at which the percussion mallet strikes the musical instrument, thereby eliminating the need to change stroke heights or playing force.
The present invention accomplishes these and other objects by providing a mallet having a head portion which includes a shock absorber, a wooden disc, and a circular band of rubber. The shock absorber consists of a rubber tube mounted on and affixed to the head end of the mallet handle. The wooden disc has a centrally positioned aperture which fits over and is glued to the outer surface of the rubber tube shock absorber. Finally, the circular band of rubber is affixed to the outer surface of the wooden disc. The circular band of rubber has a pair of converging symmetrical surfaces which extend outwardly and intersect with opposite ends of a third surface. The third surface and the edges formed by the intersecting of the third surface with the pair of converging surfaces establish the striking surfaces of the percussion mallet. A forte sound is created by striking the percussion instrument with the flat third surface, while a piano sound is created by changing the angle of the mallet so that either of the aforementioned edges strikes the percussion instrument.